Roughly $12 million raised from Vaughan residents and local businesses for a new hospital might not be handed over to the group in charge of the project, says a prominent developer.

Officials gather to celebrate Wednesday's announcement that the Vaughan hospital project will start construction in 2015. But disputes over control of the site, just north of Canada's Wonderland, and money raised for the project could delay that beginning.

Roughly $12 million raised from Vaughan residents and local businesses for a new hospital might not be handed over to the group in charge of the project, says a prominent developer.

“With respect, we disagree that there is any obligation whatsoever to give the money to Mackenzie Health,” Michael DeGasperis wrote in a statement to the Star on Wednesday.

DeGasperis was responding to comments made to the Star by former Vaughan MPP Greg Sorbara, who will be handling much of the community fundraising for the Mackenzie Health Foundation.

“The foundation ... is looking for some confirmation of amount, of donors and a commitment from the trustees (in control of the roughly $12 million) to transfer that money,” Sorbara said.

DeGasperis is part of two related groups tied to the project, one of which placed the donated money in a trust. The group he chairs, the Vaughan Health Campus of Care, was originally supposed to oversee the project’s development, but in 2011 the province distanced itself from the VHCC and partnered with Mackenzie instead.

The VHCC is now focusing on health-related projects in the area around the hospital.

DeGasperis said the money raised specifically for the hospital from community events such as the annual Vaughan Mayor’s Gala and golf tournament “will be discharged to the organization that is in charge of the process during construction.”

But it has to be used no later than 10 years from the time the trust was established, otherwise, he stated, “if the money is not utilized for the Vaughan hospital, it must be used for other health-related purposes in the City of Vaughan.”

However, DeGasperis did not clarify when the trust was established. The group under which the trust is directed, the Vaughan Health Care Foundation, was registered as a charity in 2004.

He said that due to previous delays and manipulation for “political purposes” the deadline was established because “The board felt this was the only way to ensure accountability in this government.”

Sorbara says the money needs to be handed over to the Mackenzie Health Foundation, the fundraising arm of the group partnering with the Ministry of Health on the $1.5 billion project.

“That money was contributed by ordinary residents of Vaughan who, when they wrote the cheques, believed they were writing cheques for the Vaughan hospital and we have to make sure that that happens.”

Meanwhile, at Queen’s Park Thursday, Thornhill Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman grilled Health Minister Deb Matthews over another controversy surrounding the hospital, which DeGasperis is also at the heart of.

“Who has title to the 80 acres (32 hectares) of land where the hospital is to be built? Both the city of Vaughan and a private corporation seem to have an interest,” Shurman said, a day after Mackenzie Health held a news conference announcing a 2015 construction start date for the hospital.

DeGasperis told the Star that Mackenzie’s plan better not include the 50 acres (20 hectares) of land it expects to build on. That land, owned by the City of Vaughan, is in the control of the VHCC, the group claims. DeGasperis contends that a legally binding agreement signed in 2009 between the VHCC and the city prevents Mackenzie from using more than 40 acres (16 hectares), after his group brokered a deal to obtain 80 acres (32 hectares), for which Vaughan taxpayers are paying $80 million.

“Now it is unclear who the land belongs to. Minister, you know as well as I do that a hospital cannot be built on private land. So, Minister, please end the ambiguity. Who owns the land and when will the hospital be built?” Shurman pressed Matthews.

“There are some issues to be resolved,” Matthews told reporters. “We’re still a couple of years out from construction so these are issues that will get resolved when we get closer to beginning construction.”

With files from Robert Benzie

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